BAKU (TCA) — Member countries of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) — Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey — are currently preparing for signing a protocol on the application of common customs procedures and standards.
The Secretary General of the Turkic Council, Ramil Hasanov, said it will allow to actually unite the customs structures of all the member countries of the Council, and to apply more simplified and transparent customs procedures for transit cargo transportation, Azerbaijan’s Trend news agency reported.
A meeting of the Turkic Council Working Group on Customs Cooperation was held in the Azeri capital Baku on June 2 to discuss enhancing customs cooperation including a quadrilateral protocol among the member states, the Council said on its website.
That meeting was followed by the Fifth Meeting of the Ministers of Customs of the Turkic Council member states on June 3, with participation of Mr. Aydin Aliyev, Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan; Mr. Gosman Amrin, Deputy Chairman of the State Revenue Committee under the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan; Mr. Azamat Sulaymanov, Chairman of the State Customs Service under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic; and Mr. Remzi Akçin, Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Customs and Trade of Turkey.
They welcomed the starting of the evaluation process of the multilateral protocol proposed by Azerbaijan regarding cooperation for preliminary information sharing to facilitate and accelerate customs procedures among the Member States.
It is important that two members of the Turkic Council — Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan — are also members of the Eurasian Economic Union which also includes Russia, Belarus, and Armenia. This factor may play a positive role in improving trade relations between the two blocs, given the ongoing Russian sanctions on Turkey and strained relationships between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) was established in 2009 as an international intergovernmental organization with the aim of promoting comprehensive cooperation among Turkic Speaking States. Its four founding member States are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey.
